About K50 million is needed to establish the preparatory stages of census 2020. Acting National Statistician, John Igitoi, says this funding is urgently needed as time is now a concern for NSO. “More groundwork is needed to be done, however, funding will be an issue for the agency,” said Igitoi. “We need the funding to carry out our work before December,” he added.
Despite that, Mr Igitoi says the LLG Coordinators consultation around the country is 85 percent complete. This is the first step NSO is taking to train district census coordinators. Igitoi says mapping out all the districts is vital.
The head of NSO says this will establish ‘the Census Unit Register’, an important structure before the actual census date.
While there is the urgent need for the Government and stakeholders to provide the much needed funding to support the census exercise, Mr Igitoi says investigations into the K20million abused by past management is progressing.
He says he is not intimidated by threats but says police is aware of the matter.
By Jack Lapauve Jr – EMTV News, Port Moresby
